Moving On
by Joanna Adensa
Summary: Oswald Cobblepot finally decides to erase his feelings for Ed Nygma by inviting Victor Zsasz over for dinner, a man who clearly has a crush on Oswald, but things get a little out of hand when Oswald comes home to find Ed waiting at his door step, asking for Oswald's help. A short fiction inspired by 4 04.


CHAPTER ONE

Oswald Cobblepot has been holding on to the pain for far too long. The pain of being rejected by his best friend, partner in crime, and the only man he has ever let warm his way into his icy heart. He and Edward Nygma both were guilty of doing despicable things to each other, but that never stopped Oswald from loving the man, because that was just who they were. Ed may never forgive Oswald for killing Miss Kringle—Oswald knew that now—but Oswald sometimes feared that Ed might never come back from wanting revenge for her death.

Oswald could have killed Ed at the pier, but couldn't despite his psychopathic tendencies. This is why he had frozen the man instead and kept him as a centrepiece at the Iceberg Lounge, a constant reminder to never let love weaken him again. The odd thing was, even frozen; Ed still had a power over Oswald that was puzzling. Oswald was pining for something he knew he could never have. Ed not only hated Oswald for killing 'the love of his life', he never saw Oswald as 'more than a friend', a sad and painful realization for Oswald.

When Oswald walked into his club that faithful day to find the block of ice smashed and Ed gone, it had not been the fear that Ed will return to kill him that had swept over Oswald, it had been the fear that he had lost Ed for good. That block of ice had been his own perverted way of holding onto a piece of Ed.

But then Ed had showed up at his club after sending those dim-witted riddles through the two clowns on where to meet. The riddles were so unlike Ed; they hurt Oswald's brain simple trying to figure them out.

When Ed burst into the Iceberg Lounge baring his teeth and yelling like a lunatic at Oswald for not deciphering his riddles and failing to meet up, completely oblivious to the danger he stood by showing up there, Oswald had known instantly that there was something wrong with his annoyingly-smart serial killer-Ed.

He couldn't freeze Ed again like he'd intended. The Ed cowering and begging as Victor raised his Ice gun was not the man Oswald had fallen for. The man before him was a shell of his former self and Oswald's revenge would have been wasted on him. This is why he had decided to led Ed go.

"Goodbye, Ed." Oswald had said with great disappointment.

Over the next month, Oswald tried to come to terms with the fact that his Ed was no more, and then he found out through grapevine that Ed had somehow regained brain function and that the Riddler was back terrorizing Gotham. Either way, it was time for Oswald to move on.

As Oswald drove home that night in the backseat of his limo, he pulled out his cell and dialed the one man he knew had the biggest crush on him. A man that thought was discrete about flirting with Oswald when what he did not know was that Oswald could see right through him. Victor Zsasz.

"Hey." Oswald said into the phone.

"Hey boss. What can I do for you?" The assassin said in a professional tone. Underneath all that toughness and violence, Victor was quite sweet. He possessed just the kind of ferociousness that Oswald was usually attracted to—not that Oswald has been attracted to many men in his life. Ed was the first.

"Can you come over to my place tonight?" Oswald asked, forcing a little flirtation into his voice. He hoped Victor could read into his inexpert attempt. Up until today, Oswald's relationship with his top assassin has been professional. Oswald intended to change that tonight though; a first step to erasing Ed from his heart.

"Sure thing boss. Who do you need me to torture?" Victor has always been an efficient employee.

"I don't need you to torture anyone tonight, Victor. I just want to have dinner with you. Just the two of us."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line and Oswald prayed that Victor was smart enough to read between the lines.

"Oh…Ok boss." There was excitement in Victor's voice, Oswald could tell.

"See you in an hour then." Oswald disconnected the line and smiled to himself.

When the car pulled up outside his house, his father's mansion, Oswald got out, inhaled the peculiar Gotham breeze, and limped up to the door, dry leaves crunching noisily beneath his boots. Sometimes it got lonely living in the mansion all by himself, but he had the robust Russian housekeeper that sometimes scared him with her accent and wisdom.

Instinct had Oswald reaching for his handgun when he spotted someone seating at his doorstep, knees drawn up to their chest and head held back against the door. It was around seven in the evening and too dark to tell whom it was.

"Don't shoot." The intruder said, coming to his feet.

"Ed?" Oswald called out, shocked, and confused, just as Ed towered over him. Oswald had not heard from Ed in over a month. "What are you doing here?" He did not put his gun away. "I will freeze you this time for good if you try to kill me, Ed. I don't care what I did that you think deserves retribution."

Ed's reply was not quite what Oswald had expected. "I need your help."

"What?"

"I am on the run from the GCPD and the Court of Owls and you are the only one who can protect me, Oswald." Ed covered the distance between them, a quiet desperation in his voice.

"Why do you think I am in a position to protect you?"

"Because somehow, you hold the reins of Gotham now, Oswald."

"I don't want anything to do with you, Ed. You have made it clear in the past that you don't either, so please, leave."

"I need your help." Ed hissed through his teeth and for a moment Oswald caught a glimpse of the danger lurking beneath the surface.

"Why me?"

"Because you are my friend and you owe me." Ed yelled, and then took a deep calming breath. "You are my only friend, Oswald and I need your help."

Oswald peeled Ed's hands from his suit lapel.

"Please Oswald, I don't have anywhere else to go, and everyone in this city wants me dead."

"If this one of your elaborate revenge plots, I swear—"

"You know me better than that, Oswald. Do you think I will show up at your doorstep and beg if I really wasn't desperate?"

Ed was right. He wasn't one to grovel unless it was absolutely necessary.

"I will let you in on one condition." Oswald said after a great deal of contemplation.

"Anything."

"That we won't try to kill each other until you—"

"Deal." Ed shoved his hand at Oswald.

They had a similar agreement once before and it worked. Oswald shook Ed's hand.

"You can have your old room back." Oswald said once they were inside. He was certain he was going to regret his decision.

Ed went to sit on the couch.

"He is back!" Came a shrilling cry from the other side of the living room and Oswald turned to see Olga, his housekeeper, staring at Ed as if she had seen a ghost. She'd never liked Ed. Not many people liked Ed. That never stopped Oswald from falling for the man though.

"Ed will be staying with us for a while, Olga." Oswald said, ignoring her disapproving stare. "Is dinner ready?"

"Yes, sir," Olga said still regarding Ed with skepticism.

"Set the table for three then. I am expecting a third person."

She left the two men and awkward silence descended on the room. It was unlike them not to have anything to talk about but Oswald guessed a lot had changed since they went from being best friends to constantly trying to kill each other.

"I will go freshen up and join you for dinner." Oswald said and did not wait for Ed's response before limping out of the room. When Oswald returned to the living room a few minutes later, he saw that the living room had suffered a fight and that Victor had Ed pinned to a wall with a knife to his throat.

"Boss…" Victor started to say.

"Put the knife down, Victor." Oswald rolled his eyes at the two men who clearly intended to kill each other. "Ed will be staying here for a while."

"Boss…" Victor was noticeably confused and disapproved of the turn of events, but he knew better than to question the boss's orders so he let Ed go.

"Join me for dinner." Oswald invited the two men still glaring at each other. This was not how Oswald had imagined his evening.

"You look really nice this evening, Victor." Oswald said to Victor once they were seated at the table and Olga had served them dinner. "And you smell great too. What is that you're wearing?"

Victor went from glaring across the table at Ed to blushing and smiling flirtatiously at Oswald. "Armani," he said, with a pout that one would never expect from a vicious assassin.

"I like it." Oswald was flirting and he hoped Victor noticed if Victor's blushing was any indication. This whole 'getting into another man's pants' thing was not in Oswald's area of expertise. He would rather stick to plotting, killing, and rising to high ranks, but he had to try at least.

Ed sat through dinner and watched the two men flirt with each other and he barely suppressed the urge to scratch out his eyes. Victor was clearly smitten by Oswald and who would have imagined that Oswald had a thing for his 'high priced hit man'.

Not that Ed cared who Oswald was fucking. Ed's feelings toward Oswald had not changed. He hated the man. He trusted Oswald once upon a time, Oswald had betrayed him in the worse way possible, and he was not sure that he would ever be able to forgive that kind of betrayal. He wished that not everyone in Gotham wanted him dead and that Oswald wasn't his only and last resort.

When Ed came back from being frozen for five months, he wasn't surprised to find that Oswald had risen back through the ranks of Gotham. It always baffled Ed how Oswald managed to get back on his feet time after time, and in style. He admired that about the man. Either way, he intended to go back to plotting Oswald's death soon after getting the dogs off his back.

After lounging over a glass of wine after dinner, Oswald retired for the night and Victor pretended to leave but then followed Oswald up to his room when he thought Ed wasn't looking. The two of them clearly thought Ed was that clueless.

When Ed climbed into bed a little while later, he immediately regretted picking the room adjoining Oswald's. The two men were not discrete about their pleasure and the sex noises coming from the other room had Ed covering his ears with a pillow like a child.

Ed tossed and turned on the bed as the moans from the other room intensified and he found himself wondering who was doing what to whom. He was disgusted when he heard Oswald moan in climax followed by Victor. Ed was even more disgusted in the aftermath when he found that there was a bulge in his pants. His body's reaction to Oswald having sex with another man infuriated him and he had to scream into his pillow and fling things across the room in an attempt to rein in his anger.

He did not get a wink of sleep that night nor relieve from the raging hard-on in his boxers. He was still awake when Victor left in the early hours of the morning, making a pathetic attempt at being quite.


End file.
